It belongs to the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) family, Indonesian group, and is spoken by over 140 million people, including second language users. When independence of the Republic of Indonesia was declared in 1945, bahasa Indonesia (meaning “Indonesian language”) was decreed as the country’s official language. Indonesian is virtually the same language as Malay, as spoken on both sides of the Straits of Malacca, that is the century-old lingua franca (or trade language) of the archipelago that comprises Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and parts of the Philippines. The principal difference is in the spelling, the Indonesian system having been developed by the Dutch (the orthography was revised in 1972), the Malay by the British. Both Latin and Arabic scripts are used.